Treasury’s Halloween Trick on GM Crash Victims
November, 2014
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
How high up does the corporate captivity of the Federal Government go?
“The U.S. Treasury says confidential information it got in the bailout of General Motors Co. (GM)should stay secret, otherwise at-risk companies needing government help in the future might not be willing to share data.
The Center for Auto Safety, now researching GM’s ignition-switch defects, sued in 2011 for information the government obtained before investing $49.5 billion in the automaker. It got more than 50,000 documents and wants additional records on the U.S. role in a judge’s ban on lawsuits over older GM cars. The Treasury asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit….
Still, highlighting the risks, the Treasury’s bailout fund lost $11.2 billion on its investment by December when it sold its remaining shares in the new GM, according to a May government report.
Clarence Ditlow, president of the Washington-based auto safety center, said GM came to the U.S. “hat in hand” and was forced as a condition of getting money to produce the information that he is now seeking. Others will do the same, he said yesterday in an e-mail.
“Disclosure of information will not deter corporations begging for billions in taxpayer dollars from seeking bailout funds in the future,” he said.”
Treasury to America: No you cannot see what the Federal government knew and when it knew it when we gave billions of your dollars to GM.
Lou
